Found Color - North Atlantic

Shoals Marine Laboratory Remote Field StatioN, Appledore Island, MAINE

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE I JULY 31 - AUGUST 13, 2023

JOURNAL

During this artist in residence stay I will be exploring color in the intertidal zone with summer students.

Hands-on science, art, and sensory activities designed to experience light and color immersed in the North Atlantic. 

JOURNAL

Scroll down to begin reading, JULY 31 - AUGUST 13, 2023

The Boat From Portsmouth, NH - Appledore Island, Kittery, ME

July 31 - August 13, 2023

Faces of apprehension at the dock turned into smiles on the Research Vessel/John M. Kingsbury today. We were finally underway to our island destination - the Shoals Marine Lab, on Appledore Island. A few of the passengers had visited the island before, though many were making the crossing for the first time. Some were high school students, others were in college from schools far and wide. Many of us wondered aloud what life on this eastward pile of rocks in the North Atlantic, known as the Isles of Shoals, would be like for our two week stay. The summer science programs, teaching gigs, visiting lecture opportunities, ocean and ornithological research, and artist residence encourage dreams to be realized, promises to keep. Each passenger had a different map to their own adventure. Would the weather stay as beautiful as this fair summer day with a cool North Westerly breeze? Viewing the Shoals on our approach under unobstructed sunshine was the happiest introduction, but I was secretly hoping for the full gambit of weather that buffets these notable hazards to navigation - simply for the challenge to learn the outcropping’s many moods expressed in full color.

Finding My Bearings

8.1. 2023

For such a small land mass, every site I choose to check out on Appledore’s shoreline today requires a hike. Each up-hill climb or trek over ledge made slippery with loose gravel challenges my intent. I started the morning at the Great Tide Pool, an hour after dead low tide(around 6:30 am). I’m curious to see what lives in the most protected and closest site for painting with students. Rock weed aplenty - just as you might expect. I plan to get into the water here before too long in order to prepare to coach those who want to try underwater painting for the first time.

Scouting tide pools with an accessible(not necessarily easy) entry into and exit from the water was the challenge this afternoon. I would like to locate inter-tidal areas where swimming and painting can work for the student’s first experience as well as serve the color studies of the island’s ecosystem which I would like to complete while on Appledore. Today I looked around for those sites.

I accepted an invitation from one instructor at breakfast, Taylor(introduced to me as the island’s “tide pool expert”) to come along with her students to the North East side of Appledore where they were doing transects in the afternoon. The location was described as having more color and variety of organisms than the Great Tide Pool. We scrambled over the stones strewn over granite ledge, filled in with loose cobblestones. It was hard to know where to leap or when to sit down and scoot. The terrain convinced me that these more exposed sites were inaccessible for my purposes because of the amount of materials I bring with us to use for the number of students participating .

Painting Facing West

8.2.2023

This morning and again in the afternoon I began two 12” x 16” paintings at the Great Tide Pool. I wanted to take advantage of the clear weather that we have had since our arrival on Monday. The top photo is the the first color study from 8:00m - 9:30 am. The second image, is later in the afternoon at 4:00pm.

The SML administration has strict rules for swimming, limiting my ability to check out the inter-tidal area that will be where I work during the AIR. I’m hoping to find a situation that makes getting in the water easier. I have prepared the materials for the students to join me in the water. I’ve spoken to many who are looking forward to giving painting underwater a try.

In the Swim

8.3.2023

It was great to finally get into the water today. Roger Trudeau, Captain and all-around facilitator of projects on Appledore, kindly offered to sit-watch onshore while I swam. We headed over to the boat dock, which I have decided is one of the sites that could work best with some of the students. We will need to pay close attention to the boat arrivals and departures, but the dock provides a gathering area before entry and there is a variety of rock weed and formations. Water temperature was tolerable - with a wetsuit it was a joy to cruise along the granite edge toward Pepperrall Cove and the South end of the island. The swaying of sea vegetation in the current was beautiful to behold. I’m excited for more time in the water after the coming front expected for tomorrow.

With the change in weather, I will finish up the two paintings that I began on Wednesday. I will also look for land sites to begin a larger piece. The weathered granite, with lichens, and small pools of algae are some of the Island’s color that I want to study.

Paynes Gray

8.4.2023

I got my wish today! The weather was overcast with rain showers. This is the Maine I enjoy following a few days of intense summer sun. Most of the passing low-pressure systems were gently spitting, though the afternoon rained with wind gusts in unpredictable bursts. I decided to finish the two paintings which I started on Wednesday inside. From my room overlooking Babb’s Island, the view is towards the mainland. Between showers I took breaks at Celia Thaxter’s Garden and to scope-out the land entrance to Pepperrall Cove - overgrown and too steep for a class to use as an alternative to the tidal area we plan to swim in on Sunday.

Overlooking Babb’s Rock

8.5.2023

Last nights electrical storm and rain gave me the opportunity to try out a dramatic color palette in the comfort of my dorm room in Founder’s Hall. Each day I am greeted by sun or fog changing the vision of this large rock group that stands alone from the pile that we are living on for these two weeks.

Looking out towards the mainland across Babb’s Rock, a large granite step into the distance, I think of the mother, sister, wife - the friend who it was named for. I imagine a commanding presence - a woman with a tall order.

Snorkel Time

8.6.2023

First to take advantage of fair weather and a perfect tide this morning is a small group of under-graduate researchers(SURG) excited to test out painting in the inter-tidal zone. Conditions in the water were clear and warm, and no boat wakes! As we flippered our way along the rocky shoreline south to Pepperrall Cove, each student selected a site to begin work. Making a bold color description of what they viewed before them, each swimmer tested the oil pastels to learn what colors they could mix and compare in the ever-moving current of the ocean environment. The most important objective of the first leap into the salty brine - to see how oil sticks and a limited palette can be manipulated to suggest space and atmosphere.

The Applied Science Communications class followed up an exciting Whale Watch trip earlier in the day with a leap into high tide - our second Shoal’s painting plunge of the day. They prepared to make a splash with their color studies too - each taking on a stronger current which arrived with high tide. The ASC students found their way to working over the full page recording color comparisons. This challenge held them in position until the cold forced us to head towards the swim ladder and out onto the warm dock. Some students continued to work on their art exploration there where their memories were fresh - fine tuning the image to retain their experience of the color in the water below.

Color Crowd-Sourcing

8.7.2023

Marine Environmental Studies(MES),a high school class of sixteen, took to the water sharing and being creative with the limits of the snorkeling equipment. One lost a flipper in the channel by the dock and found it was floating nearby. Another dropped their snorkel and a friend retrieved it. It took some adjustments and trading off sizes before we were all swimming in a school together at a colorful low tide, but this was a group with a passion for being in the water and looking around. There were no complaints and lots of broad smiles. It was even hard for me to tell if they were getting cold and ready to call it quits. Like a school of fish, after 40 minutes(without corralling) we moved in the direction of the dock, pulled ourselves out, and straggled back to lunch and something warm to drink. We had made the most of the last weather window before the coming storm.

A Day to Catch Up

8.8.2023

I broke out the rain gear today. The frontal system was not just a summer drizzle, but as Roger described it, “a wall of water”. En-plein-air painting was canceled - as was scouting a new location. Instead, I suited up and marched to and fro over student worn paths to the Oscar Laighton Library(where the AIR Office is), down to the commons for coffee and meals, the Founder’s Hall, and Hamilton making adjustments to my schedule, prepping art supplies, and cleaning up the snorkeling equipment for our next swim.

In the afternoon, the sun blazed with it’s familiar August heat, rock puddles disappeared almost instantly, the decking wood surrounding the classrooms grayed to a sheen that made you want to sit down again in a patch of light. The lichens on the rocks were electrified in contrast to deep mud color where water persisted. It was tempting to drag out the easel, except for the wind -that would make for a stand-up comedy routine. I’ve done that before!

No Swimming

8.9.2023

Windy weather changes the pace of the day for me on Appledore Island today. There’s not going to be an opportunity to work in the field for two reasons; the sea is rough for small crafts and swimmers - and the easel with the block of paper on it will take flight. There are enough challenges to working on location - wind over 12 miles an hour pushed me to work instead on paintings that I started in the evening light or on another rainy afternoon.

One of my creative goals for this Shoals residence was to work simply. That didn't happen as I spent several snippets of time on this piece in my room in Founders Hall from a photo of one of the spectacular evenings. I thought that I was honing the relationships. I was struggling. Time to move on and paint something on location.

After lunch today, I had the opportunity to present the concept of “synesthesia” to the Applied Science Communication class - whose first experience painting underwater was on Sunday. I planned to leave the students with an artist’s method to recall color. It can take several trips to your chosen inter-tidal location to develop the color relationships that build a spatial painting. In the studio, I use a small piece of Dulce tucked into my cheek to respond to the memory of the colors of low-tide. Today, we also explored the use of the candy “Pop Rocks”(melted sugar put under pressure using carbon dioxide gas). When the candy hits a wet tongue, it recreate the popping sounds to stimulate recall for the underwater environment close to the surface where bubbles, snapping sounds and vegetation with air bladders remind us of the wash of the rocky edge of the sea.

Wildlife Headlands; A Trip Around Duck Island

8.10.2023

The first nautical almanac for the Americas, The Atlantic Neptune Series, was made complete with water-colored line drawings of headlands a mariner would encounter as they approached the coastline to enter an unfamiliar harbor along the Atlantic Seaboard. This afternoon I had a chance to go out on the boat taking a group from Appledore on a short cruise around Duck Island, a marine mammal sanctuary.

With headland drawings in mind, I decided to shoot images of Duck Island and the ledges where the seals hang out to create a few wildlife headland paintings of my own. Since arriving at Shoals Marine Lab and taking time to paint the island’s granite profiles, there is a unique rhythm to the rock that supports the wild inhabitants(humans included). These laid back marine mammals lolling in the saltwater wash, lounging in family pile-ups, and creating a “head”land all by themselves in the water, were observing us as we gawked back with fascination and a bit of envy.

With the sun finally making an appearance and the tide midway in its rise, I set up to paint from the rocks just above the area where most of us have been swimming during the last two weeks. I expected that I would have an hour to work on a larger painting once I adjusted the easel and put out a palette of paint. My plan was to have a second session an hour later tomorrow/Friday, to catch the same tide and finish-up. The National Weather Service predicted clearing weather, partial sun for both afternoons. That isn’t how it worked out.

It was nice to have Terry Cook, the Gardner overseeing Celia Thaxter’s garden, take a snap of what looks like a serene activity. Not! I was on an angle, the easel was precariously perched at the edge for the best view of the intertidal area, and the wind was deceptively building in strength, threatening to use my block of paper as a sail and toss the whole structure into the sea! I was able to work for an hour or so, gather up everything, and move it all back to Founder’s Hall to make another attempt on another day.

Windspeed > 12Knots

8.11. 2023

We needed another plan to get our 10:45am class of twelve students into the water this morning. There were white caps across the Bay and the dock was rocking & rolling with the surge; making it dangerous to enter or exit our usual swimming spot.

Roger came up with the idea to use the inflatables and take the student’s to Smuttynose Island instead - another island in the chain of “Isles of Shoals”, with a protected cove in the lee of the wind. Everyone was excited about the adventure to this storied private island known for an ax murder. Once we got around the point on the southern-most side of Appledore, the wind quieted and tropical teal water over a shallow, shell scattered beach greeted our flotilla. It wasn’t hard to jump into this Maine cove warmed by the sun’s reflection off the bottom. There was less variety of seaweed to paint, though sea lettuce rolled across the clear view and ribbon kelp found its way into the shallows.

Finest Kind

8.12.2023

Appledore Island’s best conditions for painting underwater in the inter-tidal zone were bestowed on the Marine Parasitology class today! Colorful views of the island’s lush rock weed garden beneath the tide of the Gulf of Maine held our attention with greens, browns, reds, oranges and yellows in every direction. Sunlit tufts of algae, sponge, and soft corals swayed in the current as we tried to steady our gaze and make note of the forms and ocean perspective where these persistent plants and hidden organisms flourish. Many are the invasives that have taken hold and become dominant; sea potaoes, green sponge, European green crabs, now calling these waters home.

Each student and faculty member challenged themselves to use their oil sticks to create space with planes of color rather than draw what they were looking at with contour line and coloring it in. This method, also known as “Direct Painting” is well illustrated by the images that landed on the Leighton porch on our return from our swim. The color of the vegetation, rock forms and watery current are well seen and lay the groundwork for making more comparisons of hue to build a painting as each artist witnesses greater distinctions with each swim and ever clearer in their understanding of the habitat. Bravo! I enjoy seeing the Shoal’s near shore environment through your eyes!